Linked by Thom Holwerda on Wed 12th Oct 2011 18:28 UTC
So, today I finally joined the ranks of millions and millions of Android users, meaning I now have access to three of the major mobile platforms (Android, iOS, and Windows Phone 7). I am, however, a complete Android noob, and I'm suspecting there will be many more Android noobs in the years to come - among OSNews readers as well. Hence, I figured this might be as good a time as any for an OSNews Asks item: Android all the things! Okay, technically that's not a question, but these are: what are the best Android applications? The most useful widgets? The most beautiful themes? Should you root your Android device? Is there any reason to add the Amazon App Store? Are there any tweaks to improve the Android experience? And so on.
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Member since:2011-05-12
I would recommend installing the Android SDK on your PC as well - it's the only way to get screenshots from your phone without rooting it!
True for most devices, but the Galaxy S II has a screenshot function built in. If you press Home button and power together, it will put the screenshot in /sdcard/ScreenCapture.
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Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/25/13 0:45 UTC
"So in summary... Google has pulled the plug on support on a protocol they've helped popularize, after years of promising interoperability, for reasons that are dubious at best, and in a way that leaves people who don't jump to the new Hangouts app unable to talk to their contacts without any feedback that their IMs aren't getting through... And they've done that with no warning to anyone. I imagine there's a bunch of people out there wondering where some of their buddies have gone, or why their messages aren't getting responses, because this isn't documented anywhere." Google really messed this up. Such a dick move.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/24/13 23:59 UTC
The Tizen Greek Community has some screenshots of a very recent build of Tizen running on a Samsung GT-i8800. It looks wholly unremarkable.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/24/13 22:33 UTC
Joint statement to The Next Web from Microsoft and Google: "Microsoft and YouTube are working together to update the new YouTube for Windows Phone app to enable compliance with YouTube's API terms of service, including enabling ads, in the coming weeks. Microsoft will replace the existing YouTube app in Windows Phone Store with the previous version during this time." Good to know these children stopped acting like little pricks. Can we have full Google support in Windows 8 now, please?
Linked by Howard Fosdick on 05/24/13 21:41 UTC
Yahoo is acquiring Tumblr, the microblogging and social networking website, for $1.1 billion USD. Tumblr offers little revenue but lots of eyeballs if Yahoo can monetarize them. Now Yahoo is bidding for Hulu, the streaming video service. After years of ineffective responses while Google, Facebook, and others took large chunks of the online advertising market, Yahoo is fighting back. Can Yahoo reignite the momentum it had at the turn of the century? What do you think?
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/24/13 14:44 UTC
"Sources have described iOS 7 as 'black, white, and flat all over'. This refers to the dropping of heavy textures and the addition of several new black and white user interface elements." I couldn't be happier.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/23/13 23:22 UTC
"Ilja van Sprundel, a security researcher with IOActive, has discovered a large number of issues in the way various X client libraries handle the responses they receive from servers, and has worked with X.Org's security team to analyze, confirm, and fix these issues."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/23/13 22:04 UTC
"Google is facing a new antitrust probe by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission into whether the company is using its leadership in the online display-advertising market to illegally curb competition, people familiar with the matter said." Sucks to be Google today, apparently.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/23/13 22:01 UTC
"In the midst of the major press blitz surrounding its annual I/O Conference, Google dropped some unfortunate news about its instant messaging plans. In several places around the web, the company is replacing the existing 'Talk' platform with a new one called 'Hangouts' that sharply diminishes support for the open messaging protocol known as XMPP (or sometimes informally Jabber), and also removes the option to disable the archiving of all chat communications. These changes represent a switch from open protocols to proprietary ones, and a clear step backward for many users." That's why I always say: only suckers trust companies.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/23/13 17:52 UTC
"The wave of departures is a sign of internal struggle, but amidst all the bad news, there is a glimmer of hope. According to an anonymous HTC executive cited by WSJ, the crucial HTC One is selling 'pretty good so far'. The executive revealed that HTC sold about five million One units since launch, a performance that is deemed encouraging. However, sales have been limited by the persisting supply issues that still plague the production of the HTC One." Finally some good news for HTC. Five million units amidst supply constraints is very impressive.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/22/13 22:23 UTC
"Sony gave the PS4 50% more raw shader performance, plain and simple (768 SPs @ 800MHz vs. 1152 SPs & 800MHz). Unlike last generation, you don't need to be some sort of Jedi to extract the PS4's potential here. The Xbox One and PS4 architectures are quite similar, Sony just has more hardware under the hood. Weâll have to wait and see how this hardware delta gets exposed in games over time, but the gap is definitely there. The funny thing about game consoles is that itâs usually the lowest common denominator that determines the bulk of the experience across all platforms. On the plus side, the Xbox One should enjoy better power/thermal characteristics compared to the PlayStation 4. Even compared to the Xbox 360 we should see improvement in many use cases thanks to modern power management techniques." AnandTech does its usual in-depth thing.More News »
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2005-07-06
Before I start, don't forget that you can log into http://market.android.com/ with your Gmail username/password to see the list of apps on your phone ("My Library" link). Here's some of the better ones on my phone:
AppBrain App Market - a much better way to filter Market apps, IMHO (filtering on the standard Android Market app is dismal - free/paid/top and that's it)
ASTRO File Manager - I mainly use it to install .apk files (non-Market apps).
Andanced Task Killer - A widget on my home screen that I touch to kill background apps.
Anti-Virus Free - AVG For Android. Scans any downloads for viruses.
Apps 2 SD - Moves apps from the phone RAM onto the SD card or vice versa.
BBC iPlayer (limited to UK?) - Includes live streaming of BBC TV channels plus catch up on progs in the last week.
Box - Free cloud storage: mainly installed because I got 50GB free when signing up via my HP TouchPad
Chess for Android - Flexible chess game that can load many different engines.
Cover Art Downloader - Scans your SD card for music and downloads matching cover art that's shown in your music player.
DroidFish Chess - Probably the strongest chess program ported to Android
DroidIris - Eye candy version of an image search on Google/Bing/etc.
DroidZebra Reversi - Port of the extremely strong WZebra Windows Othello program
Firefox Beta - Gradually improving Android Firefox
Kindle - Nicely syncs with your Kindle's e-books
Prey Anti-Theft - Some nice features should your phone get lost or stolen
Pulse - Possibly the best general-purpose RSS reader out there
QR Droid - If you must have a QR reader, this is the one to get
Speedx 3D full&free - Just a fun little free 3D game
Sudoku Free - Never completed it on Extreme, but a good Sudoku implementation (from gemina.com). Remember to turn off all the hints otherwise you're cheating :-)
Wifi Analyzer - Handy graphs of current wi-fi spots - I used it to avoid overlap with my neighbour's frequency
Winamp - Yep, an Android port of the famous Windows music player
aTilt 3D Labyrinth Free - Lovely use of the gyroscope with this classic puzzle
I would recommend installing the Android SDK on your PC as well - it's the only way to get screenshots from your phone without rooting it!
Edited 2011-10-12 23:34 UTC